The use of dental floss is highly recommended by the dental profession as a necessary adjunct to oral hygiene. Indeed, the dental profession recommends that teeth should be flossed using an appropriate dental floss, at least once daily; for example and particularly, as part of the evening ablutions prior to retiring for the night.
Typically, dental floss is sold in a container which serves as the dispenser for the dental floss. Typically, when it is not actually being used to dispense dental floss, the container/dispenser is hidden away from view such as in a drawer, a medicine cabinet, or the like. This generally results in less than diligent flossing practice.
Indeed, recent studies reveal that only about 20 percent of the population of North America flosses regularly, although it is assumed that between 70 percent and up to 90 percent of all households have at least one dental floss container in their possession.
Moreover, it has been noted that there seems to be less of a tendency to want to use a dental floss dispenser which requires it to be held in one hand while dental floss is removed from the dispenser with the other hand, especially in those circumstances where the cutter for the dental floss is exposed and represents a risk to the fingers of the user. Still further it has been noted that most commercially available dental floss dispensers are awkward to use in that the spacing between the opening in the dispenser where the dental floss exits from the interior thereof to the cutter is generally quite small, so that grasping the dental floss in that region so as to remove a length of dental floss from the container is difficult.
For all of these reasons, the present invention provides a dental floss dispenser from which dental floss may be much more easily grasped so as to be removed from the dispenser. In certain embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a dental floss dispenser in which the cutter for the dental floss is hidden from view and is therefore not dangerous to the fingers of a person removing dental floss therefrom.
Still further, in certain embodiments of the dental floss dispenser of the present invention, the dental floss container or dispenser may be mounted on a mounting surface such as a bathroom mirror, inside a medicine cabinet door, on a wall in the bathroom or washroom, or other convenient and visible location. It has been noted that when a dental floss container is conveniently located in such a place and in such a manner that dental floss may be easily removed therefrom, it is more likely to be used, and therefore the practice of flossing one's teeth is much more diligent.